Hi, I am not a biologist and I hope you don't find me as an intruder to your forum.However, I have a problem that I believe I can only solve with help from you.

I am writing my doctoral thesis in accounting and I am close to finishing it. My topic is accounting and I am working with accouting legislation and its relation to organisational activities. It might sound boring to you, but please be so kind to read this post to the end, I would really appreciate it!

One of my core conclusion is that management accounting and financial accounting are integrated and separated at the same time. They share essential parts - the information basis/ the accounts and numbers - but they are separated in their ambitions and their activity in the organisation.

Now I am trying to see if there might be a biological metaphor for this. First, I was thinking of symbiosis, because these two fields (contrary to what is commonly assumed) are not separate. They feed of each other and depend on each other.However, symbiosis does maybe not quite cut it, because to my knowledge, in a symbiosis the separate entities are feeding off each other, depend on each other (beneficial or otherwise), but they are still separate. They don't build a whole.The accounting fields, however, share vital organs so to speak. A bit like Siamese twins, however, that's kind of a cruel metaphor.

So no my questions:Is my understanding of symbiosis right? Can you think of anything in nature that might be similar to what I described above?

Hi bebe13. I am all for looking for parallels in ecology and economy, and there is one, well trillions, for your example. Is it that one type of accounting is outlooking and the other is simply internal number crunching?If I have this right then the best parallel is plankton. Many plankton are made up of animal units with the necessary cell flexibility for rapid constant movement; that contain plants the photosynthesis of which feeds them. In return the plants have a safe anchorage and protection inside the body of the animal. Lichens of course are similar but they don't have the animal function of these plankton species. Both though are 'accounted' a single organism. After all our bodies are made up of different organs which all have a different function.

(English is not my first language) I am not a biologist, but you could check the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The former could represent the financial aspects of your dissertation, and the latter, the managerial, or vice versa. Alternatively, you could look at the nervous system as a whole for the managerial aspects (locus of decision making), and the circulatory system for the financial (flow of money). I am pretty sure that'll do it for you. I am also writing a PhD dissertation. However, mine is done "in absentia"; I cannot get the help of any specialist, since my dissertation (The Emperor Has No Cloths--see agaudreault.com) is written from a global perspective, and it will eventually show the world that the present "existential" problems of the human species have been caused by "learned ignorant" (specialists), who didn't know what they were talking about from this perspective.

I would say Right brain and left brain.They have the same basis of connections, neurons and transmitters.They receive common inputs via all senses but right and left side of brain process the data in different methods eg. maths and art leading to differnt conclusions.These two help in better survival of the organism.

Management and accounting might have the same inputs, but different process and ultimately benefit the organization.